Trinidad and Tobago, 25th March, 2013. The Pan American Health Organisation’s Veterinary Public Health Program organized a sub-regional workshop entitled “One Health: From Ideas to Action” on February 28th and March 1st, 2013 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop was a collaboration between PAHO/WHO, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture – Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. View Report

Thirty eight (38) delegates comprising senior decision
makers in Public Health, Animal Health and the environment from eight Caribbean
countries participated in the workshop, as well as technical personnel from
CABI, CARPHA, FAO, IICA, OIE, PAHO/WHO, USDA-APHIS and Ross University, St.
Georges UniversityandtheUniversity oftheWestIndies.Participating countries included the
Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad
and Tobago.The workshop facilitators
were Dr. Barry Stemshorn of the University of Ottawa and Dr. Craig Stephen of
the Centre for Coastal Health and the University of Calgary.

Participants worked in groups to develop One Health project
ideas and action plans to create greater awareness in their countries and the
Caribbean region.The projects proposed
for further development included:

(1) Application of a One Health approach to vector borne
diseases.This project idea focused on
threat identification and management, including strengthening surveillance and
diagnostic capacity, standardisationoftestprotocols,thedevelopment,selection,andimplementationofintervention strategies, as well as coordinating emergency response
mechanisms.The group suggested
exploration of diseasetransmissionmechanismsforvectorbornediseasesas wellasthedevelopmentof communications strategies.Examples of vector borne diseases included
dengue hemorrhagic fever and leptospirosis.

(2) Sustainable land and water use:In response to environmental resource
conflicts for small island developing states, the project idea was to conduct a
situational analysis of existing policies and practises in the Caribbean
regarding the issues of sustainable land and water use, to determine which
existing activities could benefit from a One Health approach, or where gaps
exist that could be addressed with a One Health Approach. This would then
provide a basis to develop future larger projects.

(3) Development of mechanisms to integrate surveillance
information to be used in decision making. The integrated surveillance system
would include public health and animal health surveillance data as well as
climactic data in order to monitor and detect trends, as well as to predict
outbreaks.This project would help to increase
compliance with International Health Regulations core components 10 and 11.

(4) Development of Caribbean regional and national One
Health policies.This work group decided
that a policy framework would be necessary to break down the barriers between
the agricultural, environmental and health sectors that currently prevent
multisectoral collaboration.The group
proposed to formulate and circulate a One Health concept note to workshop
participants and Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries of Health, Agriculture
and the Environment, for review and feedback.The One Health policy would be discussed at CARICOM meetings of Chief
Veterinary Officers and Chief Medical Officers, in preparation for adoption by
Ministers of Health, Agriculture and the Environment at COHSOD and COTED
meetings respectively.CARICOM’s
assistance would be requested in order to develop the Caribbean One Health
policy.Action plans would then be
developed in order to implement the policies. At the national level, countries
were encouraged to use existing multisectoral committees to promote and adopt
One Health approaches.Rather than
creating new structures, instruments such as memoranda of understanding could
be used to facilitate intersectoral collaboration. The participants agreed to
create more awareness and understanding of One Health when they returned to
their organisations and countries.

Some of their commitments included:

(1) Advocacy:briefing their Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, and supervisors on the
workshop and promoting a One Health approach in their countries.

(2) Communicating the One Health approach through their
professional networks and peer groups, such as NGOs, professional bodies and
organisations (veterinary and medical Associations), friends, civil society,
businesses, and IHR focal points.

(3) Adding Value - Examining the ways in which the One
Health approach can be introduced into existing activities and projects and add
value to multisectoral groupings through this approach

(4) Academia – The university representatives gave a
commitment to apply a One Health approach into studies through the curriculum
design.They also promised to
generate some research to provide examples for areas of One Health.However, some funding would be required.

(5) CARPHA is well positioned to be a leader in the One
Health Approach as it is in its formative stages and can choose to have a more
integrated approach as relevant regional organizations have come under one
umbrella.

At the end of the workshop the Evaluation Report showed that
the objectives were achieved because:

•92.2% of
the participants agreed that there was an increased awareness of how to apply
the OneHealth approach to issues at the human-animal–environmental interface in
the Caribbean region.

•94.4% of
the participants agreed that a Caribbean network of professionals in human,
animal and environmental health who are motivated to champion, promote and
utilize an intersectoral One Health approach had been created.

•84.6% of
the participants agreed that the One Health priority issues and activities were
brought to the fore and recognized for further development into a regional
proposal.

The program content and delivery were very highly rated by
the majority of the participants as being relevant, having met expectations,
well organized, effectively presented, provided opportunities for peer
interaction and presenter/ participant interaction, and useful.

Dr. Akenath Misir, Acting Chief Medical Officer of Trinidad and Tobago, delivers Opening Address at Caribbean One Health Workshop: From Ideas to Action, in Port of Spain on February 28th, 2013.